Nine Years War
X wrote these musings down for us. In time this wiki needs to be edited to something a bit more factual. I tend to get into a writing mode when given enough coffee. Today I wrote out a few ideas about how the Nine Years War would have played out. Please give your thoughts, ideas, any alterations to established story. First, I imagine that the army Xavier and Magneto started with would have undergone several major overhauls and reorganizations through the course of the war as they went from a guerrilla group to a world conquering army to a military security service over a world empire. This would have created a vast change in organization, structure, resources, and character. Through much of the war, telepathy would have been an invaluable resource to the mutant cause. Non-mutants would have no access to it, nor any way to hack and listen in to it. Through it, Xavier would be able to contact combatant cells anywhere in the world and coordinate with weaker psychics to provide a massive web of interconnected and immediate command, control, and communications. While mutants with abilities to throw fire or shoot beams of energy are common enough, many Delta class mutants, ones with powers of limited application or absurdly weak capability, would have benefited as much from using an AK-47 as any other human and did so. However, mutant gunmen were less common on the frontlines as they were found as support rolls and for holding conquered ground. The main line usually consisted of 4-8 an squads of Gamma and Betta class mutants. A single squad with that sort of firepower could easily take on companies of human troops. This sort of power asymmetry would be crucial to the mutant cause, as they were a race that was severely outnumbered by their human foes. Manpower would have been at a premium for mutants through the entirety of the war. Again, they were a small, emerging race that had their numbers already slashed by the efforts to put the earliest members into concentration camps and they were attempting to fight on all quarters across the globe. Delta mutants had numerous tasks they were expected to fulfill just to keep the war machine running. Mutants with duplication powers like that of Jamie Madrox were highly prized. Another think to keep in mind would be that the Nine Years War started at what, in our time, would be called the new height of the Cold War. Superpowers, paranoid of their foes, were prepared to ignite Armageddon in nuclear fire if the other one didn't blink first. Nearly everyone the world over accepted that the world would end in their lifetimes if something drastic wasn't done. Key events in the Nine Years War (proposed) The year of raids (1981): From March until November, small bands of mutant revolutionaries raid facilities throughout the world that have interred, incarcerated, or detained mutants. Concentration camps for mutants are prime targets, if extremely dangerous ones. Earliest fights between mutants and Sentinels take place, and the costly victories of the day will provide crucial tactical experience in the years to come. With tens of thousands of escaped mutants, Xavier's band swells to roughly 100 times its initial size. Intense training regimens are introduced for the next phase of the war. Operation Fire Horse, Disarmament Day (November 23, 1981): Called the opening salvo of the Nine Years War this marked the de facto end of the Cold War period. Conflicts afterwards between human organizations would entirely have mutants firmly rooted in the context of the fight. Over three dozen pychics, four Omega class mutants, and months of preparation and infiltration went into this operation. At 3:57 AM Global Standard Time, nearly every nuclear weapon on earth was destroyed or completely neutralized within a 7 minute span. The mutant revolutionary forces took credit, claiming they had pulled the gun away from the head of the suicidal human governments. This daring effort was not without cost as the psionic gestalt, the only one of its kind of such size or scale attempted before or since, burnt out or killed 15 psychic and one of the Omegas. It was a hard loss for the revolutionaries, who would come to critically depend on such powers as the war progressed. The Bell Hammer raids, (December 1, 1981): Magneto's continued call for aggressive tactics are finally agreed upon. The strategic doctrine is established: Use unstoppable force on the most highly vulnerable targets then fade away. This doctrine is immediately taken with a very broad interpretation. The Bell Hammer raids followed the general outline of Fire Horse in concept, but would no longer focus on one powers set and on plans that might cripple the mutant fighters. For the Bell Hammer raids, Paris, London, Washington DC, New York, Moscow, Berlin (including East Berlin as a separate operation), Beijing, and Leningrad are targeted for raids with the intent to damage and disrupt human governments while avoiding direct military confrontation. Mutant revolutionaries are placed in hiding. On December 1st at synchronized time across the globe, the mutants attacked the seats of political power in each of the chosen cities. Massive causalities are reported among the parliaments, councils, and senates. Reports on the deaths of the main political leaders of each country is held in tight secret. Confusion and panic reigns among NATO and Warsaw Pact nations. Casualties of mutants varied by city operation, as some mutant groups had little to no training or planning and relied entirely on power while others wound up being better equipped and trained than actual human security forces. Operation Plantigrade, (December 2 & 3, 1981): While the assassinations of hundreds of politicians across the globe has been seen as a great success by the mutant revolutionaries, they are not done. While the Bell Hammer raids main objective to strike at the head, the secondary objectives of confusion for the enemy were about to be bolstered. Among Berlin, Washington, and Moscow, secret communication lines were discovered and compromised by mutant forces. Within a day of the attack, false orders were sent to military forces of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact to proceed with operations to destroy the opposition. For most of December and into the new year, it was assumed that World War Three had finally begun, only without nuclear conflict and with the leadership of the most powerful nations uncertain. This ongoing confusion and bloodletting between humans would provide a massive early boon to the mutants for the early years. The Peacekeeper years, (1991-94): While the nations of Earth had formally surrendered 24th Dec 1990, major combat actions would continue on for the next three years, practically no scaling down of military forces by the part of the Empire. This was due to hundreds of local militias and splinter armies refusing to admit defeat or recognize the ending of the war. Or, more specifically, the defeat of the species. This also saw the first wave of human exterminations, leading to a number of new flash points and resistance movements in previously secured territories. The Peacekeeper years are of course not directly considered part of the Nine Years War, but they would have an affect on the character and stability of the reign that would follow. The Demobilization (1995-7): The Demobilization Act is passed, allowing a program of demilitarization and reintegration of armed forces back into society. Many soldiers have spent more than half their lives on the front lines. Some were conscripted directly from the horrors of internment camps. Demobilization's first priority is seeing to allowing soldiers to return to their native homelands if they are so inclined as well as ensuring that stipends, education, and benefits are provided for the many that served their race. With the sheer numbers of mutant military (even allowing for their small size compared to conventional human armies); the spread of forces across the globe; and the lack of complete records, especially from the early days of the war; the endeavor is considered a logistical nightmare. Despite many soldiers falling through the cracks of the bureaucracy, the results were a moderate success in all. Renegades, revolutionaries, fanatics, and desperadoes were slowly educated and domesticated back into a civilian lifestyle.